THROUGH
practically a thousand years while the European theater was "dark"
the Christian Church was unable to stamp out completely the festive
element among the common people that manifested itself particularly
at the spring planting time and the harvest season. It is probable,
had not the church itself responded to the primitive desire of
people to "act out" the stories of their lives, that
secular drama would have sprung up in place of the Mystery,
Miracle and Morality
plays of the Middle Ages.

It must be remembered, too, that everywhere
the service of the church was conducted in Latin rendering it
quite unintelligible to the masses of the people. If they were
to be familiar with the stories of the Bible that knowledge must
come to them through the medium of a portrayal of events in the
life of Christ and of his saints. When the early attempts were
made by the priests to act out the stories of the Christmas and
Easter seasons, there was little or no national consciousness
in continental Europe. It was, to all intents and purposes, one
vast domain living under a feudal system and acknowledging a
nominal allegiance first to Charlemagne and later to the "Holy
Roman Emperor of the German people." There was, too, but
one religion. This religious and political unity made it extremely
easy for the ideas of the Mystery and Miracle plays to spread
through the agency of the bards and troubadors that wandered
from court to court of the feudal barons.

At first only the priests took part in
acting out the events from the lives of Christ and the saints
and the portrayal took place in the Church proper. Later as the
performances grew more elaborate and space became an important
item the Mysteries and Miracles were pushed out into the courtyards
of the churches and laymen began to take part in the acting.

By the beginning of the twelfth century
national boundaries were becoming more or less marked. England
by its geographical position was isolated from the currents of
thought that flowed through continental Europe, and there, as
the people took over the responsibility for the acting of the
sacred plays, it became the custom to turn individual incidents
over to the guilds of the various crafts. Also, there arose a
feeling of need to present, not only isolated incidents or groups
of related incidents at Christmas and Easter, but the whole history
of man from his creation to the day of judgment. The various
incidents of this long story were divided among the guilds of
a district, staged on wagons easily drawn from one place to another,
and were presented in proper sequence at set stations throughout
the district. This complete history enacted by the various guilds
came to be referred to as a "cycle" and for further
identification was referred to by the name of the district in
which it was presented. Viewed from the light of modern times
the four most important cycles were those of Chester, York,
Coventry, and Towneley (also called Wakefield).
That these cycles, even though religious in nature, took into
account the popular love of comedy is evidenced by the fact that
in the only surviving incident of the Newcastle cycle
Noah's wife is represented as a vixen.

About the same time, both in England and
on the continent, the idea was conceived of representing the
Virtues and Vices by name in the persons of actors, to afford
the audience a "moral" lesson. From this grew the Moralities
of which the most famous are the English Castell of Perseverance
and Everyman
... the latter presumably an import from Holland.

Both the Mystery and the Morality plays
were often long winded and frequently dull. To relieve the tedium
"interludes" were presented which were nothing more
nor less than slapstick farces as a rule more distinguished for
their vulgarity than their humor. Most of these farces came originally
from France or Italy and dealt either with the subject of sex
or digestion. At their best, however, they carry on the true
tradition of the Greek comedy writers and the Roman Plautus
and Terence.
From these "interludes" (literally "between the
games," which was their actual use in Italy) developed a
swift moving farce that was acted independently of any other
performance. The best and most famous of these farces of the
Middle Ages is the French Farce of Pierre Pathelin.

This article was originally
published in Minute History of the Drama. Alice B. Fort
& Herbert S. Kates. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1935.
p. 7-8.